


A Bad End

by Thatonegothynerd



Series: Adventures of The Scarred [7]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Broken Heart, Broken Promises, Character Death, Death, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Dungeons & Dragons Campaign, Nightmares, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Tieflings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 00:24:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17254148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatonegothynerd/pseuds/Thatonegothynerd
Summary: A few moths ago, we thought that the days of The Scarred were over. We were going to scrap the campaign and end it where it was. This is the "bad ending" all of our characters might have faced if we had. This is non-cannon, aside from Immerel's death.





	A Bad End

Avarice was standing in front of a massacre. She took a moment to recognize where she was. She was in Turst Fields, standing at top the hill where she had once watched the ending of a battle her side had won. This time, it was clear they had lost. She looked and saw the winning side scavenging bodies. There were hags, oni, baby dragons, orcs, giant spiders, pirates, a red gelatinous blob, devils and humanoids down below. Among the humanoids she saw faces she recognized. The shadar kai were below, mutilating a corpse; Elisande and Elion were laughing to each other, as though one had told a great joke; Jezabeth was staring at each body she passed with a wicked grin on her face as she set them all ablaze; and Vasily was in front of her, merely observing her. 

“You lose Bella. This time, it’s really over,” he spoke in the coldest tone she had ever heard.

“No. No it can’t be over,” Avarice said, panic rising in her voice. 

“Look around. There’s no one left to help you.” He gestured for her to look down at her feet. 

The body beneath her was familiar. The goliath’s normally gentle and calm face was stuck in a look of horror and splattered with blood. Toby’s stomach had been sliced open, as though by an expert sword, and his intestines lay before him. Avarice turned her attention to the corpse next to him. It was Silgar. Her body was badly charred and only recognizable because the upper left of her face had been spared the flames. Next to her was Aedra, an arrow through their throat and Althaea was nearby, sword still drawn and her head a few feet away. 

Avarice recognized every corpse on the battlefield. They were all of her friends and allies. Any person that had ever said a kind word to her was now before her, dead. She looked up at Vasily’s face and he gave her a knowing look. 

“They’re over there,” he said, pointing behind her. 

She turned to look and immediately screamed. First she saw Immerel. His lifeless body was beaten and bloodied, and his ear was freshly cut. His eyes were open and glassy. Then she saw Tal, her young and carefree face horrified, her body impaled with a sword. Kel and Millicent were together. Kel had taken a defensive position in front of their love, but looked like they had been struck by lightning. Millicent’s smeared makeup told Avarice that she had witnessed it. Millicent herself had suffered a blow to the head, her skull caved in on the right side. The next corpse was one she never expected to see. Her father, his green eyes wide and his mouth open to speak was on the ground, noose still tied around his neck. 

There was only one corpse left. Avarice didn’t want to look. 

“See him Bella. See what you did.” Vasily’s hands forced her face towards the final corpse on the field.

Dragomir lay before her looking exactly how he had that night on the roof: there was blood seeping out of him; open wounds covered his body, with a particularly nasty one across his chest; his left eye socket was empty, while his remaining crimson eye looked at nothing. The difference this time was that his chest wasn’t moving.

Avarice screamed until there was no sound left. She cried until the tears no longer could flow and the sobs stopped wracking her body. She looked up at Vasily. 

“Just kill me,” she said, voice so horse it was barely a whisper. There was nothing left for her. 

Vasily drew his sword and walked behind her, holding it against her throat. 

“You’ve lost everything Bella. There’s nothing left for you.”

Avarice knew the end was near and she was ready. Pain shot through her as she pressed her throat against the blade. She wanted it to be done. 

“You have nothing. Which is why you get to live.”

Suddenly the sword was gone. Avarice screamed again, barely audible as Vasily walked away. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t leave her here. 

“You once feared dying alone Bella,” Vasily said, not turning to face her. “And now I’m going to make sure you live.” 

 

Avarice screamed again and woke up. 

In the real world, her eyes were wet with tears and her throat was horse. She reached out beside her and found nothing but a cold and empty bed, as she knew she would. 

She at up in bed and looked around her opulent room at the Go Oasis. The curtains were open, casting long shadows in the room from the glow of the moonlight. She remembered when this room made her happy, it had everything she had ever wanted. Now it brought her nothing but pain. Avarice’s eyes settled on her desk where a portrait frame had been laid face down. She couldn’t look at their smiling faces anymore after all that had happened. 

In the three weeks after Immerel’s death, everything had been different. Hells, Avarice had been too, but she thought they would all become themselves again given time, but she was wrong.

It all started with Millicent. She was terrified after what happened and became obsessed with immortality. She spent every minute of the day researching and experimenting with ways to keep her and Kel together forever. She wouldn’t take breaks or eat or sleep. She ended up collapsing several times because she refused to stop her work. Dragomir and Avarice did their best to try and help her, but it was no use. Kel was horrified by what was happening to Millicent and they begged her to stop, even trying to force her at one point, but they just couldn’t stop her from her mad pursuit of eternal life with her beloved. Kel could think of only one solution: break her heart.

Kel left Emon and didn’t say where they were going. The letter they left simply said that they never wanted to see Millicent again, and that she should move on. Millicent was devastated, but she stopped her research. She stopped everything. She was like a construct, completely hollow behind her eyes. Millicent’s friends did their best to help her, but it made no difference. She was just going through the motions of her previous life.

Avarice wanted to take her home to Westrun. She hoped that giving Millicent something to do would help her get back to herself. Millicent was apathetic to the idea, so Avarice was set to take her, but she wanted Dragomir to come with her. 

However, Dragomir had his own plans. He wanted to find and kill the shadar kai that killed Immerel, no matter what it took. They fought about it for weeks, Avarice convinced his plan was suicide and Dragomir convinced she was just running away from her problems. The truth was they were both right. There was no way they could take down the shadar kai alone, not when they were so weak. But Dragomir was right too, Avarice did want to run away. She was terrified after what happened to Immerel. Death had always been her greatest fear and when she was confronted with it she wanted to run. She didn’t want to die, it was that simple.

So Dragomir left her. 

Avarice felt herself start to slip into a similar state to Millicent, but knew the other girl needed her. So she took Millicent home. The other girl slept in the room that had once been Kel’s at the Go Oasis and went through the motions of daily life without really living. Sometimes Avarice would go to her and the two would drink until they couldn’t remember their problems anymore. Avarice ran the business and gave money to The Clasp each month to spy on her friends and bring her news on their whereabouts. This had been life for nearly five years. 

Bringing herself back to the present, Avarice’s eyes shifted to a spot on the wall where a portrait hung covered in a black sheet. She stood up and walked to it, pulled the sheet down. The beautiful couple before her were smiling and happy: her pink cheeks were flush in a blush as the man with the crimson eyes held her close. Avarice felt tears start to slip down her face again as she began shaking with sobs. She had gotten news yesterday that Dragomir had tried to fight the shadar kai alone and lost. 

_ You’ve lost everything Bella. There’s nothing left for you. _

Vasily’s words from her dream echoed through her head. And he was right. There was nothing left for her here.

She fell to the ground, collapsing under the weight of her own grief. 

_ You once feared dying alone Bella. _

She really did. She didn’t think her life could get any worse than it had that day nearly eight years ago when she escaped from Drynna, but it had. Then she had wanted nothing more than to live, but now the thought terrified her more than anything in the world. But she wouldn’t do it. For Millicent she would be strong. 

_ You have nothing. Which is why you get to live. _

**Author's Note:**

> All characters belong to their respective players. I do not claim to own Kel, Draogmir, Tal, Millicent, or Immerel.


End file.
